Translation of The Four Sunan

The Translations of the Sunan Arb’ah can be downloaded in the links below:
Abu Dawud
Tirmithi
Nasai
Ibn Majah
Do read this post.

NB. The translations and explanations, even though they are the best available ones from the aspect of modern English, are biased towards the Wahhabi way of thinking.

Warning. There are many mistakes in the Arabic gradings of the hadith. The English translation of the grades are, in many instances, worst off than the Arabic, as they are misleading. Below is an example of a misleading translation from Abu Dawud’s Sunan:

Hadith 203 AD example of mis translation
The English grade simply has one word: (Da’if) which means “weak”. However the full translation of the Arabic grading is as follows:

“[Its chain is weak] Ibn Majah narrated it (in), Purification, Chapter of Wudhu from sleepin, # 477, from the hadith of Baqiyah with the remaining chain the same as above (in Abu Dawud). Its chain is weak, however Munziri and others graded the hadith “hasan” (sound), and the hadith has many supporting narrations.

There is a huge difference between grading a hadith weak (which was done in the translation) and grading its chain weak (which was done in the Arabic text). A weak chain does not necessitate a weak hadith. If there are supporting narrations then it can be elevated to the status of hasan (sound). That is the case with this hadith. The Arabic  clearly states that this hadith has many supporting narrations. Moreover, the Arabic text quotes the great muhaddith and hadith critic Allamah Munziri as grading the hadith “hasan” (sound). It also indicates that he is not the only one that considers it hasan (sound) but there are other muhadditheen of that opinion as well.

This is the method of translation in all such situations and there are many.

Dear reader judge for yourself. Is the translation of the grading misleading?

Author: Ibn Suleman

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